9/11 Series: Debunking Fahrenheit 2,777

If you type "9/11 pentagon conspiracy" into Google, you'll get more than 1 million hits. Inside Job by Jim Marrs; The New Pearl Harbor by David Ray Griffin; 9/11: The Great Illusion by George Humphrey; and the issue Popular Mechanics are detailed analyses on the most prevalent claims.

All these conspiracies fall under the broad categories of: creationism, Holocaust denial, and alternate theories of physics. Today we'll be talking about Fahrenheit 2,777, in which conspiracists claim the load of fuel from the aircraft was not large nor hot enough to cause the structural failure of the Twin Towers.

The World Trade Center's steel could handle winds approaching at 200 miles per hour, so why not kerosene fuel? Jet fuel burns at 800 to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas the melting point of steel is 2,777 degrees Fahrenheit. Therefore, there could have been no way that the planes brought down those towers alone, right?

Some argue that bombs assisted the collapse of the towers, but science says otherwise. Steel loses 50% of its strength at 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, and the jet fuel ignited other combustible materials such as rugs, furniture, and paper would have raised temperatures above 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit. When one floor collapsed onto the next floor below, it would create a pancaking effect that triggered the crumbling of each subsequent 500,000 ton structure.

Professor of engineering at the University of California, San Diego, Forman Williams observed that the buildings only burned for ten minutes due to the jet fuel, but it was the resulting inferno that ultimately brought the towers down.

Additionally, experts agree that for the towers' steel frames didn't need to melt for them to collapse; they just had to lose some of their structural strength. Retired New York deputy fire chief Vincent Dunn said he had "never seen melted steel in a building fire [but] a lot of twisted, warped, bent, and sagging steel."

Over 18 years later, 9/11 conspiracy theories still linger. "Truthers" fill the internet with supposed proof of a vast conspiracy, but you are entitled to believe what you like. Stay tuned for more conspiracies!

Sources:
http://www.911research.wtc7.net/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fahrenheit-2777/
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a6384/debunking-911-myths-world-trade-center/